The FSF argues that the government should use free software to provide
more freedom and transparency to its constituents and reduce the need
to engage in costly copyright enforcement activities on behalf of
proprietary software companies. The FSF states that "the most
egregious harms to the public interest in the areas of copyright and
patents come not from a lack of enforcement, but from extraordinarily
excessive enforcement."

"For a government that's supposed to be accountable to its citizens,
it's clear that using free software should be a natural choice," said
Brett Smith, license compliance engineer at the FSF. "With free
software, government can be sure their computers work on behalf of the
people, instead of some proprietary software company. And it also
offers an opportunity for unparalleled transparency: agencies can
release the source code of software they use to help illustrate what
they're doing."

The creation of IPEC and the Joint Strategic Plan are mandated by the
"PRO-IP Act," which became law in 2008. The Joint Strategic Plan is
intended to provide broad policy recommendations to increase
enforcement of copyright, patent, trademark, and anti-counterfeiting
laws both at home and abroad.

"Everything about the PRO-IP Act, from the confused way it lumps
together various laws under the banner of 'intellectual property' in
its name, to its corrupted purpose of being another government
giveaway to the big incumbent copyright industries, is flawed" said
Peter Brown, executive director of the FSF. "It's unfair for
taxpayers to foot the bill for supporting the unethical business
models of a handful of companies. Our comment shows there's another
way: with relatively small steps, government can do the right thing
and use free software, make a better investment in our society, and
eliminate much of the need for enforcement of these laws."

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to
promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and
redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and
use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating
system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free
software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and
political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites,
located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information
about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at
http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.

About Free Software and Open Source

The free software movement's goal is freedom for computer users. Some,
especially corporations, advocate a different viewpoint, known as
"open source," which cites only practical goals such as making
software powerful and reliable, focuses on development models, and
avoids discussion of ethics and freedom. These two viewpoints are
different at the deepest level. For more explanation, see
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html.